Toto Wolff dismisses "stupid pill" behind Mercedes 2022 failure

Toto Wolff, Mercedes, Mexico City GP, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes - Toto Wolff

Wolff dismisses "stupid pill" behind Mercedes 2022 failure

Mercedes boss did not hold back in judging a difficult year

Sam Hall

Sunday 11 December 2022 08:00

Toto Wolff is adamant Mercedes 'did not take a stupid pill' when designing the W13 despite delivering a blunt assessment of his team's shortcomings this year.

Mercedes suffered a torrid campaign by its standards as a run of eight consecutive F1 constructors' titles came to an end.

Following the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations over the winter, the team's cars were badly affected by the phenomena of porpoising and bouncing which took months of development time to resolve

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Asked how Mercedes had failed to anticipate the problem whilst others recognised it, Wolff told the 'Beyond the Grid' podcast: “Because we got it wrong. Even the best people can get it wrong.

"My assumption of why a team would function - that I learned back in the Williams days - is that you have to have the right infrastructure, the financial resource, good drivers, a powerful engine, the right organisation, and enough time to put it all together.

“These ingredients would make sure that you are competitive.

“Winning can be something else, and winning a championship is a different thing, but we have all of that."

Wolff - no-one shying away from taking blame

Any change to the technical regulations has the chance to shake up the order, with championship-winning teams often seeing a lapse in performance at the start of a new era.

Despite showing signs of improvement late in the season, particularly with George Russell's victory in Brazil, Wolff refused to hide from the fundamental flaws behind the W13.

“We haven’t suddenly taken a stupid pill [and gone from] winning the constructors’ championship last December and then in March being nowhere," added Wolff.

“It is very easy - we got the concept wrong. We underestimated the effect when running the car very low and others did a better job.

“Whether they knew the effect from past days or they were simply more focused on this particular area of car behaviour, I don’t know.

“But in the organisation, nobody is shy to say that we have done a bad job here. It is very easy.

“There is no hiding, there is no seeking for an explanation of how we ended up there. All of us are saying that we got this very wrong and others got it very right.”